So on Facebook, where voice talent go to cajole, complain and try out new material, I saw there was yet another voice-over group. Like a lemming, I joined it – or should I say I was accepted cause the owner, my friend Terry Daniel keeps it closed (never a bad idea).

The FIRST thing I saw was something I did not know about – something called the Midwest Voice-Over Conference.

Now as anyone in voice-over knows, the world is not lacking for voice-over conferences – most all of them trying to share knowledge and sell stuff – that’s fine. You’re all pretty familiar with my partiality to FaffCon, which is a completely different animal as far as voice-over events go (which is why it’s always a sell-out). FaffCon is great too, not better than other events (that would be a subjective opinion anyway) but great. My point is there’s room for these events. Whether or not there’s an audience for all of them has yet to be determined.

What caught my attention was the concept of a meeting specifically of mid-west voice talents – wouldn’t that be fun?! Same with northeast, southwest etc. Divide it up anyway you want…make it a conference for only voice talents with connected earlobes – who cares, just have fun and learn. The connections these folks make with each conference will prove to be very valuable, even if (as with the Midwest Conference) the conference is mostly for newbies. Hey, it’s never bad to make a new friend.

The person who I know most who is presenting at the the Midwest Voice-Over Conference is Laura VonHolle, who is one of my agents at Heyman Talent. Now like all my agents, she’d have trouble picking me out of a line-up, but she and the folks at Heyman are good people and they’re going to have a heart to heart with the folks at the the Midwest Voice-Over Conference about securing representation. That’s a pretty good start as topics go.

My advice (other than for the organizers to drop that annoying audio commercial that plays as soon as you open the site) is if you have the time and you’re working (or want to work) in the VO biz, then head over to Columbus for the weekend and see what the experience has to offer. I hope everybody has a great time.

Tags: voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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That’s what I feel like saying to every new person that calls me about the Voice Over Workshop and wants to get started in voice over. But I don’t say it; I try to be honest with people but I try not to be brutal.

Everyone….everyone is entitled to their dream and I am not the final arbitrator of talent or career choice. It’s just a dumb vocational decision fraught with lots of challenges, which can prove insurmountable to many. I think a VO newbie might enjoy a career in bomb disposal more.

But today, a Sunday of all days, I got two calls from folks wanting to get started with voice over training. Sunday being a day of reflection for many, these two folks may have reflected on voice over. Or maybe it was a rainy Sunday and they had nothing else to do except search the web, I dunno.

But because they seemed a little unsure of my training process (in spite of my wordy web exposition on the site), let me – again – briefly explain how this works.

1. I’m going to initially send you to www.voiceoverentranceexam.com and tell you to read my free book. I do this not as an exercise in ego but to give you a sense of how honest I will be as a voice over consiliere.

2. Then if you want to go forward, we will pick a Saturday and work for 2 hours on whatever voiceover topic you choose. Yes, YOU pick the agenda (I’m a voice over talent…planning to is too much like work…kidding!).

3. There are no minimum classes – you can do one class or one hundred…there are no discounts for multiple classes. My knowledge bank does not decrease the more frequently I work with you – hopefully you see even more value with more visits…that’s the feedback from my learners, anyway.

4. Yes, the guarantee is still in place…if we go through the lesson and I think you do not have what it takes to be in voice over, I’ll stop the first session, tell you why you suck as a voice talent in my opinion and you don’t pay me anything.

5. No, I really don’t just want to talk with you about voiceover for a few minutes. I know you are a nice person, so am I but I am also a very busy person and I have to draw the line somewhere. Family and finance come before sitting in a coffee shop giving free career advice to someone I’ve never met before. I know, I’m such a jerk even though I say I’m a nice person.

So there, that’s how the Voice Over Workshop operates. Wherever this information ends up on the web, hopefully that gives you a sense of how we would work together…and I hope we do get that opportunity.

Tags: commentary, voice over entrance exam, voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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This week I sent out my fairly irregular Voice Over Workshop Kick In The Pants eblast.

It’s a simple little newsletter to my voice over friends about things I think will be interesting and some information about available dates I have for the Voice Over Workshop

At the most, I hope the people who read it find something of value.

Well I got the nicest, simplest note from voice talent Brian Haymond who told me he wrote a blog post about the newsletter.

I completely did NOT expect that but I was really pleased that he found something so of interest that he wanted to blog about it.

Not to crow too much but only to say it was a nice feeling.

Tags: voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Here’s a scenario: you get a call from a commercial client and it’s a rush deal, they need the spot done yesterday. You will have very little time to digest the copy before you have to record it and send it back. What are you going to do?

For many folks, they will scan the script and hit record. After all, the client needs it NOW and they are in panic mode, not quality mode so it won’t reflect on you if the read isn’t perfect.

Stop. Don’t do it. Back away from the script and the microphone. Breath.

You can still get the spot done quickly but also get it done right.

Step 1. Grab a pen or pencil

Step 2. Read silently. Mouth CLOSED, no lip movement. Read only with your eyes…don’t speak a word of that script….not one word.

“What?! That’s crazy, I need to practice how this will sound!!!!”

I told you to be quiet when you read the script for a reason. You need to dissect the script as you read.

So read this :30 second script 3 times – this will take you about 2:30 all totaled.

On the 1st read: Read for comprehension – this is vital. VITAL! You need to grasp the copy writer’s intent going beyond script direction (cause often you won’t even get that!) Are they going for humor? Drama? Silly Sublime? Are you a character or just an announcer? What kind of character or announcer? What kind of sell are they going for? Knocking them in the head with a sledge hammer kind of sell (“Sunday! SUNday! SUNDAY!!!”). Is it a scare tactic script (“is your computer data backed up or could you lose it all with one power surge?!”). All these things and more you need to be able to identify after the first read through. Take/make notes on your script.

On the 2nd read: Is there a change in tone or intensity from one part of the script to the next? Does it start softly and build in intensity? Is it suble all the way through? Is it hard sell all the way through? Where is the critical sales message (you likely found that in the first pass but you should confirm your assumption here).

One the 3rd read: Start reading the script out loud, making your announcer marks as you go. Check the copy for time (notice – this is NOT something I advise in the first two read throughs – to do it earlier would take your mind away from critical interpretation notes.) Now your natural voice over abilities and acting talents can take shape and make the script your own.

By now you understand the script a lot more than you would if you just started reading. You’ll have a better chance of properly conveying the message the client needs the listener to hear. You’ll have a comfort level with the copy, intent, sales message and pacing of the script so that not only will you cognitively understand the script, your mouth will have wrapped itself around the words and give you a better shot of cutting the spot in a shorter amount of time…maybe even in one take.

Tags: commentary, voice over workshop by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Well I bet of all those seven words, you never thought you’d see “expert” near my name.

Me neither.

But I am this week’s Voice Over Expert on Voices.com‘s regular podcast.

Stephanie had been after me for almost a year and maybe longer to host one of their podcasts and there was no good excuse for not having gotten around to it except to say life got in the way.

But I look at it this way: THIS was the time the podcast was supposed to come out and so it did. Fate now, explanations later.

The topic is “The First 15 Seconds” and while you might think it a review of my wedding night, it is, rather, an overview of how to look at voice over auditions in a more critical way.

Specifically, to try and tie in all that you can about every aspect of the script and your performance into the first 15 seconds of your audition; that’s likely the amount of time it will take for a producer to listen to your audition and know if your voice is the right voice for the project the producer is working on.

This is stuff I work on all the time with folks at the Voice Over Workshop but the overview in the podcast will give you a good start if you want to work on this on your own.

Voices.com was very nice to include me and while I don’t believe listenership to my podcast will be so large as to fry their servers, I hope it gives the Voice Over Experts podcast a good start to the new year…please give it a listen. Thanks!

Tags: commentary, voice over podcast, voice over training, voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voices.com by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Animation Voice Director Stevie Vallance may or may not have purple hair

Animation Voice Director and Emmy Award winner Stevie Vallance has two October “Tooned In!” workshops on ‘Animation Voice-over Acting”. I know her to be a patient teacher cause she taught me.

In New York City, her Tooned In! 1-Day Original Workshop will take place on Sunday October 17, 2010 from 12:00pm to 5pm at the Edge Studios.

Crossing over in to her native Canada, Stevie’s Ottawa, Ontario Tooned In! 1-Day Original Workshop will take place on Sunday October 24, 2010 from 12:00pm to 5pm at the Raven Street Studios.

For more details or to sign up, click here.

Tags: animation, voice actors, voice casting, voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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